The present invention relates to processing poultry and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for automatically venting/opening, eviscerating, displaying for inspection and cleaning poultry.
Conventionally, poultry was eviscerated by hand, but growing labor costs, concerns over worker health, and the desire to minimize product contamination led to the development of machinery to carry out the evisceration process. Such machines mimic what workers used to do: open the body of the bird at the vent without cutting the intestines (to avoid fecal contamination), then pull out the intestines, stomach and other internal organs through the opening. Certain organs must remain associated with the carcass until it is inspected, because they may display signs of poor health, and because some may be included, such as giblets, with the final product.
Conventional machines individually convey poultry through a plurality of processing stations, including vent/open stations, eviscerating stations, inspection stations and cleaning stations. Such conventional machines continuously convey the poultry through these stations (i.e., without stopping the poultry for processing in the stations). Working on poultry while it is in motion yields problems with positioning the carcass in the correct position to receive treatment because of variations in carcass size, carcass position in the shackle, and shackle position in relation to the tool. If a carcass is not properly positioned with respect to the tool, the tool may not make a proper cut, resulting in a processing error which is left inside the carcass, or dripping down the outside of the carcass. Thus, there is a need for a conveying system for a poultry processing apparatus which will maintain the poultry in a stationary position during venting, eviscerating and/or cleaning of the poultry.
Conventional systems work on carcasses in motion, vertically hung on shackles by their hocks. In this manner, conventional venting and evisceration systems work or enter carcasses from above. Therefore, if a processing error occurs, the result of that error is left inside the carcass, or dripping down the outside of the carcass. Thus, there is a need for a poultry processing apparatus which can work on the carcasses from a nearly horizontal position. In this manner, if a rare processing error should occur, the result of the error is naturally brought outside of the carcass without contact to the exterior of the carcass. This results in producing carcasses which have a lower rate of contamination.
Conventional poultry processing machines position the poultry for processing in a fixed position, regardless of the size of the poultry. More particularly, the poultry is clamped in position for processing by various members which have finite positions, and which are positioned with respect to the operating tools at a finite location. Such finite positions are typically selected to account for receiving larger poultry. In the event that undersized or smaller poultry is used, it is often not correctly positioned with respect to the operating tool. Accordingly, a need has arisen for a poultry processing machine which can position the poultry in a manner which compensates for its size to properly orient the poultry for the motion of the operating tool. As mentioned above, by properly positioning the poultry with respect to the operating tool, processing errors are minimized.
During the evisceration process, it is known to use elongated spoons to scrape along the internal walls of the body cavity to remove the viscera package. However, conventional eviscerating spoons are problematic in that they do not provide for the movement of the viscera package during the viscera process. That is, the handle of the spoon moves throughout the body cavity during the evisceration process, and engages the viscera, and sometimes compresses it against portions of the internal walls of the body cavity of the poultry, resulting in damage to the viscera package. Accordingly, there is a need for an eviscerating spoon which allows the viscera package to move within the body cavity during the evisceration process without compressing the viscera package against internal walls of the body cavity of the poultry.
After the poultry has been eviscerated and the viscera package is hanging from the carcass, it is conveyed to an inspection station. Every chicken produced in the United States is required to be visually inspected by a U.S.D.A. inspector. At 30-35 birds or more per minute, the inspector's job is tedious and repetitious. Inspectors, like other workers, are subject to repetitive-motion injuries, as they must manipulate the birds to get a good look at the interior of the body cavity and the organs. Inspection is also a limitation on line speed. During the inspection process, the inspector usually designates birds for one of four categories: (1) normal clean-out procedure; (2) radical clean-out procedure; (3) condemned and (4) parts salvage, all of which are well understood by those of ordinary skill in the art. In conventional systems, if an inspector designates poultry condemned or for radical clean-out, it is removed off-line and processed differently. The remaining poultry then continues through the system to be normally cleaned out. Removing birds off-line is time consuming, and requires additional handling, thereby increasing the risk of contamination. There is a need in conventional inspection stations to provide the inspector with the ability to flag or label the poultry for one of the three treatments, and then have the system automatically recognize how the eviscerated poultry is to be cleaned, and then, in the case of a normal or radical clean-out, carrying out the same directly on line, and in the case of a condemned poultry, automatically transfer it from the system.
During the conventional cleaning process, the neck cavity of the poultry is cropped. Conventional croppers pass through the neck of the bird with a barbed end. The barbed end is rotated through the neck of the bird. However, such conventional croppers are problematic because the barbs on the end of the cropper often become bent, or sometimes break bones within the poultry, which then causes subsequent problems during the de-boning process. Accordingly, there is a need for an improved cropper which does not rotate within the neck cavity, and yet cleans the neck cavity and removes the crop.
Thus, there is a need for a poultry-cleaning station which will treat carcasses which pass inspection with an inside rinse of high-volume, low-pressure water, and then a vacuum, to remove the water on the way out. If a carcass is passed conditionally, the radical function engages, resulting in treating the carcass with a large volume of water, and increased vacuuming to remove water, lungs, kidneys, and any extraneous material.
The present invention resulted from the inventors' observation of the problems associated with conventional poultry processing machines, and their successful efforts to solve them. Therefore, the present invention is directed toward a poultry processing machine which minimizes contamination and reduces the inherent variability found in conventional systems by positioning each carcass, regardless of size, in the correct orientation for each machine operation. Thus, the present invention overcomes many of the disadvantages inherent in the above-described conventional poultry processing machines. Consequently, use of the present invention results in an improved yield and wholesomeness of processed poultry.